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Building Wealth

How Can You Get On Track to Build Real Wealth?

Surplus wealth is a sacred trust which its possessor is bound to administer in his lifetime for the good of the community.” – Andrew Carnegie

Many people have solid plans for family and work, but lack the financial wherewithal to accomplish them. They feel as though they need a tremendous amount of money before they can actually begin living their dreams.

Studies show that most people want:

more time

more money

more freedom

more health

more love

and more happiness

Most young people today want a decent job so that they can save for the American dream of owning a home and having a car in the driveway. At the same time, most older people want to achieve financial security and someday be able to retire.

I would like to introduce you to some principles and tools that show how to get more money in your life regardless of your current age or current situation in life. Additionally, if you play your cards right, more money will ultimately get you more time and more freedom. It is important to remember that money cannot buy you more health, more love or more happiness.

The right way to build wealth…

Money is important. But too many people rely on gambling or lotto tickets because they believe this is the only way to get rich. This isn’t true. Regardless of your financial circumstances, anything that you set out to accomplish is still within reach. It may take you working one or two jobs for a time, or having a part-time business. It may take a lot of work, in other words, but money is a necessary tool to create freedom. And freedom gives you the time to pursue your goals.

The key is to work smarter and negotiate more often. In this world, you either need to spend less than you make, or make more than you spend. Either way, you will spend much of your life negotiating for something or another, so always remember to ask for more than you want to ensure that you will get what you need. Too many people get hung up working at their jobs, living paycheck to paycheck, and they never make time to learn the principles of wealth creation.

Your challenge then is: To get the “retirement thing” over with (invest enough money to retire) as early as possible, so that you can become free to pursue your destiny.

Your Job is a Temporary Vehicle:

It’s crucial to understand that a job is nothing more than a vehicle in which you position yourself to do two main things:

Provide right now for your family

Learn, so that you can advance to the next level (whatever that might be.)

Here’s something I’m certain you don’t often hear:

I believe that work is overrated. That’s right – I see work or a job as simply a method to support my family while I pursue my life goals.

Having this philosophy about work will help you in many ways. The old concept of going to work for a good company to get job security no longer exists.

Consider the following alarming statistics describing the high level of worker discontent…

ABC News recently reported that ten million Americans are unemployed.

USA TODAY recently reported that 50% of American workers say they are “unhappy at work,” and the numbers are as high as 66% in New England. My friends in Canada tell me that the percentage of people unhappy at work there is even higher.

The Gallup Organization shows 55% of employees are actively disengaged in their jobs – putting in their time, but with little or no energy or passion. They neither identify with their work nor promote company objectives. This results in loss of productivity in the U.S economy at more that $350 billion per year.

CNN reported that in the year following 9/11 more than one million Americans were laid off from their jobs.

The Center of Creative Leadership reports that 40% of new hires end in termination.

This is not a problem just in the United States. The same issues are a reality throughout most of the world. In fact, working conditions worldwide create far more concern than those in the United States. The above information proves that job security and worker satisfaction is a thing of the past.

Instead, if we are able to make it financially today, we need to create “income security.” What is income security? Income security can only be reached if you understand two main strategies about money and wealth, both of which I learned from one of my business mentors as a young man while in my 20s. These two key strategies are as follows: